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Hospitals’ Preparedness to Treat Pediatric Patients During Mass Casualty Incidents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 October 2018

Chiaki Toida Open the ORCID record for Chiaki Toida [Opens in a new window] ,
Takashi Muguruma  and
Keiji Hashimoto
Chiaki Toida*
Affiliation:
Disaster Response Working Group, National Center for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, Japan
Takashi Muguruma
Affiliation:
Disaster Response Working Group, National Center for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, Japan
Keiji Hashimoto
Affiliation:
Disaster Response Working Group, National Center for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, Japan
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Chiaki Toida, Department of Disaster Medical Management, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655 JAPAN (e-mail: toida-ygc@umin.ac.jp).
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Abstract

Objectives

Little is known about the preparedness of hospitals to care for pediatric patients during a major incident in Japan. This study assessed the disaster preparedness of a children’s hospital in Japan by using a disaster drill.

Materials and Methods

We performed a triage drill with all hospitalized patients. The triage tags and medical records were reviewed retrospectively. We determined the efficacy of triage education, the validity of the Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment (START) method for children, and the potential need for evacuation through the disaster drill.

Results

This study highlights 3 important issues about the hospital’s preparedness. First, it is difficult to promote disaster education for staff who are not well trained on handling disasters. Second, the START method is suitable for children older than 5 years, but it has a high rate of over-triaging among younger children. Third, approximately 40% of patients who are coded as immediate may require transportation resources in a hospital evacuation.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that disaster preparedness, such as educating hospital staff regarding disasters and establishing evacuation systems for a number of pediatric patients when a disaster happens, is essential for caring for hospitalized children during a mass casualty incident. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2019;13:429-432)

Keywords

primary triagesimple triage and rapid treatmenthospital preparedness for disastermass casualty incidenthospital evacuation
Type
Brief Report
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , June 2019 , pp. 429 - 432
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 

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References

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